You made the decision years ago that this is a good industry and one that you can grow your business in until you retire or sell it. Overall, you have a good relationship with your employees. Labor can become an issue however, and it's hard to keep good employees. Most of the original "team" have moved on and the quality of service you started with has dropped off slightly. Because of that your cancel rate is rising. You can see the handwriting on the wall: do something now or lose it. The old formula doesn't seem to be working anymore.

Customer retention has been an increasing problem that must be dealt with immediately.

You're servicing most of the good parts of town plus a few areas where it doesn't pay to go. You've noticed a lot of competition coming in that's cutting into new sales. They are underbidding you at every turn. Price has become an issue with many prospects.

What to do?

Besides all of the options mentioned in the 750 - 1500 Lawn Care Customer Base Guide, you may want to consider a Fall Direct Mail campaign. This is typically a harder sell than spring, but if done correctly, can be profitable. Most of your competition won't be doing any marketing in the fall.

Timing and local weather conditions are critical for fall mailers. For example: if it's been an unusually wet summer and lawns are still lush and green, no matter how they were treated or who treated them, fall campaigns will be a tough sell because consumers see no reason to switch. On the other hand, if the weather's been hard (drought, disease, insect damage) then you can expect a higher response rate, but you should also expect a corresponding higher cancel rate of your current customers as well (unless you happened to keep their lawns green throughout the drought).

Get rid of areas that are not profitable. Look at sales by zip code and in those areas where it just isn't profitable, get rid of those clients. Sell them off to your competition.

Because you're market share is wide spread over much of the city, cable television may be a good move. TV advertising reaches a broad spectrum of lawn prospects viewing targeted programs with a higher percentage of viewers having the demographics that closely match your target prospect. Making the decision to do TV advertising is more complex than what can be described here and a lot of variables go into the mix. Please contact us for a closer evaluation of this option.

Web Site ($500 - $1500)
Door Hanging — Neighbors of Current Customers ($0.20 each + labor costs)
Block Leads
Pre-Pay Letter to Cancels— send a Pre-Pay Letter to customers that cancelled during the previous 2 years, offer them a substantial discount 10-20% if they prepay for the entire full season. Filter your Cancel file to remove movers and bad debt/problem customers.
Business Cards an inexpensive way to make a big impact (less than $0.07 + postage)
Advertising Specialties (free rain gauges/note pads/pens etc.)
Telemarketing — New Leads ($1600 - 2000 for 50 hour test)
Telemarketing — In-house Cancel/Reject File;
Fall Direct Mail Campaign — targeted list; especially successful with poor weather conditions leading up to 1st week of September
Spring Direct Mail Campaigns — the best time to generate quality leads and long-term customers; highly selective list following specific criteria for maximum results and return on investment
Premium Truck Decaling — truck sales account for between 2 - 4 % of new sales each year; make a lasting impression with quality truck signage; investment depends on size and quantity of graphics; include web site on truck as well as all literature used by company
Television Advertising — can be targeted by cable system networds and programming to hit your demographic target prospects.
Invest in in-house training so your sales staff remains sharp and on the same page.